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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Are You Sure It's Not Someone Hiding Out in That Scientology Building?


Oh no, major disappointment today. Well, sort of. A few days ago, we mentioned that Hollywood coming out" P.R. specialist Howard Bragman had a new celebrity who was ready to come out of the closet. We, and all of America, held our breath. Would it be Queen Latifah? (Finally!) Or would it be Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllanhal? No. Hardly. Instead, it's country singer Chely Wright. So where's our disappointment? We've never heard of her.

Hey, that doesn't mean that Miss Wright's coming out is not tremendously important, especially considering that American sports and country music are the two areas of entertainment in which homophobia is the most entrenched. So Chely's honesty is groundbreaking and will have incredibly positive effects. Good for you, Chely!

But we really wish the "celebrity" had been someone we'd heard of, and who most of America had heard of. This kind of thing has a lot more impact when it's someone who is a household name. There is a fantastic article in this week's Sports Illustrated about the only "out" gay athlete currently on the team of a major sports franchise. The only one! Can you imagine the impact on American society if all the gay professional football, basketball and baseball players came out? It would be earth shattering. But hey, for now, we'll take what we can get, so Chely Wright deserves a huge congratulations.

On another note, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has cautioned against ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for the military too quickly. He and others mentioned in a hearing before Congress a few days ago that when the ban on openly gay soldiers ends, the army might have to arrange for separate living conditions for the gay soldiers. They're afraid that if straight soldiers are told they have to share barracks with gay soldiers, the straight soldiers might rebel. Are you fucking kidding us? Whatever happened to soldiers following orders with no questions asked? Is this the American military or an "army by democratic vote"? Suck it up, straightie soldiers, your emotional instability and backwoods bigotry doesn't give you the right to weaken the American military.

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